Bluff Photos

A beautiful evening walk on Butterfly Beach. I love the last glow of the sunset. After the main show is over, and there is just a hint of color in the sky, everthing takes on a completely different feel. The same scene in the middle of the day is still beautiful, but the steep angle of the remaining light brings out the textures in the cliff and bathes everything in an amazing glow.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, we spent the afternoon just wandering the rolling hills from Santa Ynez to Jalama Beach. Jalama beach is actually closed through May Second, but the drive out the winding road is still a wonderful experience on a beautiful spring day. By the time we got out this far the California Poppies had all closed for the evening, but the yellow mustard flowers covered many of the hills making the further hills look painted with a yellow brush in the distance.

Bixby Creek Coastline in Big Sur on Pacific Coast Highway. Whenever I'm in Monterey I like to take a day to drive down Highway 1. There is no end of beautiful things to see, and every day is absolutely unique. This day was virtually cloudless, but there was still enough fog over the water and mist from the waves to give the late afternoon sun some nice golden color.

Dogs always know how to have the most fun, especially at the beach. These guys were racing up and down the beach at Shoreline Park with seemingly infinite energy. Their people, like my wife and I, were more content to just take in the amazing beauty around us.

An early evening long exposure from Butterfly Beach. The glow in the distance is the reflection of the city lights on the evening marine layer, and the last light of the setting sun. This is about half an hour after sunset while there was still a little color in the sky. Of course these days a long exposure like this is 3.2 seconds. Once upon a time I would have been standing there for minutes with a stopwatch.

This was one of those evenings that the sunset seemed to be long gone. But it was still a beautiful evening to enjoy a walk on the beach. As we wanderd down the beach the clouds on the horizon started to glow again even more beautiful than before.

Last week as the high tides were coming in right at sunset the waves really picked up. The tide was so high there wasn't much beach left, but it was great to watch from the sidewalk. Of course there are always the adventurous ones.

Yesterday we took a nice walk at Shoreline Park in the evening. We decided the best use of our daylight savings hour was to spend it on the beach, or at least overlooking it. It was a bit of a hazy evening, but I think most of it was sea spray, and it made for an amazing sunset!

There are some amazing spots along the California coast. Pismo Beach is one of the more well known, and it's not hard to see why it is so popular. The big wide sandy beach with the amazing views from the beautiful boardwalk are something special even for our coast. Just to the north along the top of that bluff, I have chased some beautiful hummingbirds and watched some amazing sunsets. It's definitely a spot to see if you have the chance.